And why shouldn’t she be? Helen Mirren is the theatrical queen in question, enjoying one of the greatest successes of her distinguished career playing Queen Elizabeth II in the West End hit The Audience, which Toronto monarchists will get to see starting June 13 at selected Cineplex screens as part of the ever-growing National Theatre Live series of plays on screen.

“I find this all positively amazing,” says the live-wire Mirren in a phone interview from her dressing room just prior to a recent performance. “I’ve had the incredible good luck of playing this remarkable woman twice now and, both times, I’ve been fortunate enough to have Peter Morgan as the author.”

The first time Mirren donned the royal purple was in 2006 when she played Her Royal Highness in the movie written by Morgan called The Queen, which won Mirren a Best Actress Oscar and worldwide acclaim.

This new stage work is quite different and, instead of telling a linear story, it hopscotches around through history, visiting eight of the 12 prime ministers with whom Elizabeth has held a totally private weekly meeting during her reign to date.

“Do I like Queen Elizabeth?” Mirren repeats the question a bit incredulously. “I’m absolutely an Elizabethan. She has been the queen of my whole remembered life. That’s not to imply my family were all royalists. God, no. They were very remote, very republican. I still am a republican, but that doesn’t prevent me from admiring the woman.

“My nature is to see people as human beings. In fact, I’ve always insisted on seeing the whole royal family as human beings.”

But Mirren hastens to add that her feeling did nothing to ease the anxiety she felt playing such a revered figure.

“Good Lord, I was absolutely terrified. I knew that everybody in England and all over the world has a great interest in Elizabeth Windsor. An almost obsessive love-hate relationship. No, not love-hate, because there’s really no hatred there, but many of the British still can’t get their heads around the concept of a royal family and they can’t leave them alone, no matter what they do.”

Despite the almost uncanny accuracy of her performance, Mirren insists that she never tried to mimic Elizabeth. “I’m an actress, not an impersonator. I’m absolutely lousy at accents and stuff like that. The script for The Queen was wonderful. That was the secret.”

But even though her go-round through the House of Windsor was such a success, Mirren felt a certain trepidation when she heard that Morgan was writing a play that would feature Elizabeth again.

“When Peter told me he had written this play and asked me to read it, I sent him a two word e-mail: ‘You bastard!’”

But Mirren finally was persuaded it wouldn’t be going over the same ground two times in a row.

“It’s very different from the movie. It’s very funny and very moving and I have to play her from 25 to 87. It jumps backwards and forwards in time and the way they age or ‘youthen’ me from scene to scene is truly quite amazing.

“And ultimately, it’s about politics more than it’s about the monarchy. The sheer nail-biting neurosis of being the prime minister of Great Britain and having to meet with your queen every Wednesday when you both were in London.”

Morgan realized that time constraints meant all 12 couldn’t be portrayed and so he eliminated four, the most surprising being Tony Blair, until one realizes that he was one of the major characters in The Queen.

“I agreed with that choice,” concurs Mirren, “and I also felt he did the right thing in including Gordon Brown as well. It made for a fascinating mix. You have to understand that Elizabeth liked certain individuals more than others. As she says in the play, ‘It’s friendliness, not friendship.’ It’s the office, not the individual.

“Although it’s funny that two of the prime ministers she most enjoyed being with were from Labour and her closest relationship was with Harold Wilson. It’s all in the writing. You just do what’s on the page. The challenge is that a lot of the script is very funny and people want to laugh at everything, but you have to let them know there are serious sequences too.”

That was driven home pointedly to Mirren after Margaret Thatcher died during the run of the show.

“Even before her death, the Thatcher scene was a powerful one,” says Mirren. “We see her when she’s angry and feel she’s been betrayed because she’s being accused of a leak that the monarchy didn’t approve of. Haydn (Gwynne) had played her brilliantly at every performance, but the night Mrs. Thatcher had passed away, the scene was especially electric.

“Since we’ve been doing the show, other world events have intruded. The Pope retired, Queen Beatrice retired — we make constant small adjustments to the script to reflect what’s happening in the world.”

Mirren shares that Morgan plans to rewrite the script still further for the North American premiere, possibly reinstating Tony Blair, “but that’s going to be many years off, so tell everyone in Canada to come see The Audience at National Theatre Live while we’re all still doing it.”

In that moment, the unmistakable royal sense of command and entitlement has crept into Mirren’s voice.

“Well, after a while,” she admits blushingly, “some of it is bound to rub off.”

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